NEW YORK (AP) – Amazon is suing the New York Attorney General in an attempt to dissuade her from suing the company over coronavirus security protocols and firing one of its outspoken employees.
In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday, Amazon said Attorney General Letitia James has overstepped her authority by trying to regulate security protocols for the coronavirus at its warehouse in the Staten Island neighborhood of New York.
The company said James threatened to sue if Amazon disagreed with its list of demands, which included re-hiring the employee, Christian Smalls, and paying large sums of money to him and another laid-off employee.
James said on Friday that she will continue to review her legal options. In a statement, she called Amazon’s lawsuit “a sad attempt to distract from the facts and evade accountability for failing to protect hardworking workers from a deadly virus.”
Amazon defended its COVID-19 safety protocols in the lawsuit, saying it hired experts, added hand sanitizer stations, and warned signs to keep workers at least six feet apart. It also said that unannounced inspections in March and April by the New York City sheriff’s office found the warehouse going beyond safety requirements.
Amazon fired Smalls in March after he led a strike at the Staten Island warehouse to urge the company to better protect its employees from the virus. Smalls said he had been fired in retaliation and to prevent other workers from speaking out. Amazon said it has terminated Smalls for violating social distances guidelines.
The company argued in court documents that only the federal government can mandate COVID-19 security protocols and that the attorney general’s office does not have the legal authority “that it claims to wage against Amazon.”
Seattle-based Amazon is asking the court to stop James from taking any action against the company, and to declare that it has no authority over COVID-19 security measures or to regulate claims that an employee has retaliated.